God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (P.S.)

Book Description

In fewer than 250 pages, this book places the King James Version in historical context, brings vividly to life many of those who worked on it, gives a plausible account of how the task was accomplished, and conveys in Nicolsonâ€™s own passionate prose the full grandeur of the translation.

Customer Reviews:

Engaging without being Trivial, Erudite without being Obscure .......2007-06-26

I have sometimes thought that the best way to learn history is not to read a textbook or historical synthesis, but to read about one event, one person, or one cultural artifact. In order to understand the significance of any historical particularity, we must understand the surrounding context. But if we wish to understand the context, we can grasp it through that particularity.The philosophical remarks are necessary, as it is that idea-that we can begin to understand the dynamics of a culture through a particular event-that undergirds Adam Nicolson's methodology in God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible

After all, God's Secretaries is not only about the King James Bible: it is about England and its transition from Elizabeth to James. With tensions increasing between the newly formed Church of England and the Puritans, James saw the creation of a new Bible, a Bible for all of England, as essential to keeping the country together. In order to do so, he commissioned this new translation to be a moderate translation, one that would marginalize the anti-hierarchical translations of the popular Puritan Geneva Bible, which he saw as a threat to his own rule.

God's Secretaries is the story of the men and the events that shaped that translation.

The end result of their efforts, argues Nicolson, is a Bible that reflects the moderate inclusiveness of the King James court : "[The King James Bible] does not choose. It absorbs and includes. It is in that sense catholic, as Jacobean Englishmen consistently called their church: not Roman but catholic, embracing all."

Nicolson does not limit his analysis to the abstract generalizations. At points, he reads the text of the King James Bible extremely close, comparing it to previous and later translations. In his discussion of Mark 14:4, where (as the KJV puts it) Judas asks, "Why was this waste of the ointment made?," Nicolson concludes: "In this sentence, one can see the extraordinary phenomenon of the King James Bible conforming both to Protestant and pre-Protestant ideas about the nature of Christianity. It is both clear and rich. It both makes an exact and almost literal translation of the original and infuses that translation with a sense of beauty and ceremony. It has that peculiarly Jacobean combination of light and richnesss, the huge windows illuminating the densely decorated room, the unfamiliar amalgam of the court-Puritan, both strict and grand...It doesn't choose between the clear and the rich but makes its elucidation into a kind of richness."

As much could be said of Nicolson's prose. As might be expected from someone steeped in the language of the King James Bible, Nicolson is very aware of language-including his own. In comparing the King James Bible to the recent New English Bible, Nicolson concludes that the New English Bible is "a descent to dreariness, to a level of banality below Tyndale's...The language of the King James Bible is the language of Hatfield, of patriarcy, of an instructed order, of richness as a form of beauty, of authority as a form of good; the New English Bible is motivated by the opposite, an anxiety not to bore or intimidate. It is driven, in other words, by a desire to please and, in that way, is a form of language which has died." Nicolson's own prose, however, avoids the pretentiousness of someone who is self-consciously trying to resurrect the English tongue. His musical and poetic style flows too freely to be intentional.

God's Secretaries is valuable not only as a window into the England of King James, though it is an excellent window. It contains a rich analysis of the King James Bible and an fascinating recounting of the men and events that shaped the translation. Nicolson's work contains illuminating comparisons of our own era and language to the era of the King James Bible, comparisons that are as thoughtful as they are wistful.

Through it all, Nicolson is engaging without being trivial and erudite without being obscure, which makes God's Secretaries a must read for anyone interested in history.

I hope you like the word "Jacobean".......2007-06-16

because it gets used about 600 times in this 250 page book. 6 or 7 times a page, sometimes. In spite of his obvious love of that word, or maybe because of it, the author never offers any kind of definition for it. I hope you like the word "richness" too, because you'll get that one 3 or 4 times a page throughout. "Marvelous" is also a big favorite

This whole book reads like a term paper that's being padded to make a minimum word count. The author has a little bit of very good material to work with; enough for 50 pages maybe, and that part of the book is great.

Then basically he talks about anything he can think of that has anything to do with anything near the Bible, just to run the page count up to something appropriate for a full length book instead of the novella this could have been.

There's 30 pages on the Pilgrims going to America, for some reason. There's about 20 pages in the middle that are just a re-statement of 20 pages near the beginning. 15 pages or so of pictures of the tranlators. 10 or 15 pages on Shakespeare, including a section on how King Lear is the "opposite" of the King James Bible, whatever that could mean

I was left disappointed. I expected this to be either in depth biographical sketches of the Translators themselves, or a blow by blow account of the actual translation process of the King James Bible. Instead what you get is a little bit of both, totalling maybe 30 pages, and then about 190 pages on the architecture of the time, long exerpts in archaic dialogue from books and letters of the time, basic history lessons on King James, and like I said earlier, anything else Nicolson can think of to run the page count up

As one other reviewer stated, there doesn't seem to be any clear method to the presentation of the information either. It isn't Chronological or translator by translator or topic by topic or any kind of system that I can tell, and because of that there is ALOT of restatement of the exact same information 2 and 3 times, adding to the feeling that either the author was just running the page count up or at the very least published a draft of the book that hadn't been run by an editor yet.

I would say google this topic instead. you could read all the pertinent information in maybe 20 minutes and save the time and money associated with reading "God's Secretaries".

Middle-brow history of a working committee.......2007-05-28

As always, visiting and reading the words of the previous 63 reviews has proved to be enlightening and useful. Because of certain comments and objections offered in the past, it seems to me that I should begin with statements of what this book is NOT:

--This book is not an advocate of any particular religious issue, sect or cause.

--This book is not a Bible study or, indeed, any sort of religious study guide. Those seeking an exposition of religious truth should turn away right now. This is not for you.

--This book is not an academic text, being largely free of any formal thesis and paying no particular homage to whatever Theory happens to be on the academic boil these days. Academic drudges burrowing for material with which to footnote their footnotes will be wasting their time here in a manner even more dramatically pointless than usual.

--This book is not a self-consciously designed "easy read" written in words and phrases suitable for the comprehension of fourth graders. This author occasionally dares to quote people who lived four hundred years ago in their own words, styles and spellings. Consider this passage: "I am persuaded his Royall mynde reioyceth more with good hope, wch he hathe for happy successe of that worke [the new Bible], then of his peace concluded with Spayne." [Page 65-66 of the hardcover edition] If that taxes your reading skills to the breaking point, seek enlightenment elsewhere.

This book does provide an overview--or perhaps more accurately, a sketch of religion and politics in 17th century England. In many ways, the two words were alternate terms for the same phenomenon, much as they are in Baghdad today. (A single generation after this translation of the Bible was made, the intertwining of religion and politics would become almost as deadly as it is in Baghdad today.)

The book offers thumbnail biographies--and in a few cases, somewhat more than that--of the fifty or so grave and learned scholars tasked with preparing the translation. In so far as the records survive, it outlines their organization and their contributions--for even in those long-ago days there were bosses and drudges.

Finally, the book deals with the majestic 17th century translation of the Bible as a literary entity. Here, at last, Adam Nicolson becomes an advocate. While acknowledging that scholarship and learning have made advances in the three centuries since the translation was made, he argues forcefully that no English translation made before or since has matched the King James Version in effectiveness, directness, power and sublimity.

Nicolson is such an advocate of the grand style of the KJV that it affects his own writing style. He does not emulate the actual style of the Bible--a thing, he makes clear, that was deliberately chosen and already noticeably archaic in the early 17th century, but he is much more orotund than is common in our piping times. He models his prose more on Gibbon or Macaulay than, say, Hemingway.

Consider the author's handling of a meeting at Hampton Court that involved the newly crowned King James, some gorgeously bedecked senior bishops of the Church of England and four black-clad Puritan ministers. All were assembled to bring sweet harmony to the land under a King who liked to think of himself as a peacemaker--and who sometimes was. That, of course, turned out to be a flat failure, but one of the Puritans, John Reynolds, almost casually remarked that the ministers he represented would like to have "one only translation of ye Bible to be authenticall and read in ye churche." Richard Bancroft, the Bishop of London (who a few years earlier had taken up a pike among his own armed guards to repulse the Earl of Essex's ragtag rebellion and who would soon become Archbishop of Canterbury) sneered at that, saying "If every man's humour might be followed, there would be no end of translating."

To everyone's surprise, the King commanded that a translation be made. In Adam Nicolson's long-breathed, parentheses-strewn, semi-colon-laden words, it was a "translation that was to be uniform (in other words with no contentious Geneva-style interpretations set alongside or within the text); with the learned authority of Oxford and Cambridge (which, at least in their upper echelons, were profoundly conservative institutions ...); to be revised by the bishops (the very influence that Reynolds did not want); then given, for goodness' sake, to the Privy Council, in effect a central censorship committee with which the government would see that its stamp was on the text, no deviation or subversion allowed; and finally to James himself, whose hostility to any whiff of radicalism ... had been clear enough. And this ferociously episcopal and monarchist Bible was to be the only translation to be read in church: `no other'." [Page 60.]

It must be pointed out, however, that Nicolson's prose does not always march to the solemn beat of the kettledrums ("for goodness' sake"), but sometimes dances to a merrier piper: "For these Puritans, and in a way we can scarcely understand now, the words of the scriptures were thought to provide a direct, almost intravenous access to the divine." [Page 135]

This is a good, middleweight book that, so far as I can tell, does not push unduly beyond the bounds of the scanty evidence. It can be justly criticized for being as much a series of raconteurial anecdotes as a logically-structured book. Its underlying preference for style over content is, at the very least, open for debate.

Four stars--but well worth reading in any case.

A MINOR OBSERVATION:

Adam Nicolson is obviously an Englishman, but my American edition from HarperCollins consistently uses the typically North American term, "King James Version," rather than the English "Authorised Version." I therefore suspect that other Americanisms may also have been edited into the English text.

Why I keep coming back to the King James version........2007-03-09

A fascinating read for one who reads the Bible and is interested in where did we get this translation and how accurate is it? It's amazing that a "committee" actually produced a winner but "God's Secretaries" did just that. Perhaps in the few centuries since the KJV was printed, archeologic and other evidence has added new knowledge but Mr. Nicholson has shown why some of the "modern" translations are bland and miss the drama of the Bible story. They read the translation aloud and they all listened befoe deciding.

A fascinating story.......2007-02-09

After reading Adam Nicolson's book, "God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible," I have a deepened appreciation for the majesty, the richness, the musicality, and the exactness of this beloved English translation of the Bible. Nicolson does a wonderful job of explaining the historical climate of Jacobean England, the guidance provided by King James I, and the unrivaled text that fifty or so scholars worked on for seven years prior to the publication in 1611. I especially commend this book to you if you are a fan of the King James Bible or if you question the value of this particular translation.

Here is an excerpt from Nicolson's book, commenting on a passage from Mark's Gospel:

There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

"This is a particularly resonant and revealing passage about the way in which the King James Bible works. The private ritual of the woman with the spikenard is cloaked in an air of what can only be called holiness. Her bringing the oil of spikenard (an aromatic plant, sometimes identified with lavender) carries echoes of the Magi bringing their precious substances to the child in the stable, and the words these translators chose also carry forward-echoes of the Last Supper, now only hours away ('and she brake the box, and poured it on his head, 'Jesus took bread, and brake it'). This atmosphere of holiness is made to reside in the strange, formal, ritualised language of the seventeenth-century Bible (which also happens to be an intimately exact translation of the original)...."

Nicolson notes that this passage "is both clear and rich." The wording infuses the translation "with a sense of beauty and ceremony." Eloquently, Nicolson concludes his praise for the King James translation of this passage with this: "the richness of the words somehow represents a substance that goes beyond mere words and that is its triumph." (See p. 196.)

Thanks to Nicolson, I became aware that the King James Bible was translated with attention to how it would sound to its listeners. The final committee of scholars read the text aloud as part of the process of deciding on the wording. This accounts for the sense of rhythm in so many passages.

I enjoyed learning more about the 50 scholars who did the work and came away amazed that such imperfect individuals could accomplish something so wonderful. Nicolson, whose liking for his subject shines through with unabashed enthusiasm, explains how the translators worked (in six companies) and sheds much light on the atmosphere and beliefs of the time. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to read this book.

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God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible
Adam Nicolson
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

The best good book.(God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible)(Book Review): An article from: New Criterion

Average customer rating:

The best good book.(God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible)(Book Review): An article from: New Criterion
Paul Dean
Manufacturer: Foundation for Cultural Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Foundation for Cultural Review on October 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1462 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The best good book.(God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible)(Book Review)
Author: Paul Dean
Publication: New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2003
Publisher: Foundation for Cultural Review
Volume: 22 Issue: 2 Page: 65(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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God's Secretaries : The Making of the King James Bible
Adam Nicolson
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition

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HOW THE SAMURAI ROSE AND FELL
Very informative text with may interesting asides

Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition
Harry Cook
Manufacturer: Sterling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0806906707

Book Description

For centuries, the Samurai dominated Japan. Although they have disappeared, their values--honor, loyalty, and bravery-continue to influence Japanese thought today. Where did these fierce warriors come from? How did they achieve such power? This engrossing history recounts the Samurai's foundation myths, the tales of princes and emperors who set the stage for the feudal system where the Samurai thrived, the battles that changed Japan's landscape and culture, and the emergence of the clans who became the Samurai's employers. Explore the "way of the warrior" in poetry and image: these contemporary documents reveal the Samurai's high regard for the bow and arrow, their codes of behavior and their attitudes toward fear and death. Photographs show rare surviving specimens of elaborate suits of armor, often beautiful weapons, and castles. Pages abound with drawings, paintings, and photos both classical and modern. Plentiful sidebars focus on especially significant and compelling events. Insightful and physically striking, this thrilling account will mesmerize readers everywhere. A complete history of the Samurai, and tales of how they came to dominate Japan for centuries. Sterling 144 pages (all in color), 8 1/2 x 11 3/8.

Customer Reviews:

HOW THE SAMURAI ROSE AND FELL.......2004-06-28

Well, I have to tell you that I came to this book after I saw the movie The Last Samurai. While Hollywood movies can serve a positive function by exposing people to new ideas and cultures, they very rarely tell the truth about them. So I came to this book looking for a general introduction to the Samurai. This book did a good job of that by the use of reader-friendly prose and an abundance of illustrations.

The feudal system that came about in Japan was very similar to that of Western Europe, with a weak central government who owed its power to local warlords, who in turn had their own private armies. In Japan, the samurai, like the knights in Europe went from being simple warriors to the offical exemplars of the entire culture. They had their own code of chivalry, "Bushido", and would often kill themselves rather than suffer the dishonor of defeat. For a thousand years, they were the true power behind the throne of the emperor. Ironically, the demise of the samurai came about because of peace. What were these warriors supposed to do without a war? As seen in The Last Samurai, towards the end, they were even forbidden to wear their swords. In some respects, they were similar to the American Indians, in that a lot of them failed to assimilate to a culture that was rapidly being revolutionized by technology.

This book tells of all the major battles the samurai undertook, whether it was the native inhabitants of Japan, Mongol and Chinese invaders, or even civil wars between themselves. Individuals are given some treatment, such as Musashi, probably the greatest warrior of all time, and the samurai who united Japan into a unified country for the first time. What is sad is that the samurai turned away from the modern world in unreasonable hopes that it would just go away. The problem is that the world stops for noone. Just because the samurai didn't want to use gunpowder or fight naval battles, America and other world powers were able to come in and humiliate Japan in the 19th century. It just goes to show you that isolationism breeds stagnation.

I would highly recommend this book to general readers or those who would like a general introduction to Japanese and Samurai history. I would also recommend The Samurai Trilogy available in Criterion Collection DVDS, and also any samurai film by Akira Kurosawa. Also, I would recommend The Tales of the Otori novels by Lian Hearn.

Very informative text with may interesting asides.......1998-12-12

This book is one of those books that when you start to read it you can't put it down. As well as the main text there are interseting asides that take you behind the scenes of the the lifes and times of a warrior race that was both bloody and brutal as well as being artistic and restrained. Mr. Cook has written a wonderful narative that take the reader inside the Samurai's world.

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